HB 364 was introduced in this year's general session. The purpose of the bill is to prohibit certain sensitive instructional materials in public schools, whether they are found in libraries or chosen by the teacher for classrooms.
The bill was put under evaluation in an Education Interim Committee meeting last week because a group of parents and the bill’s sponsor, Representative Ken Ivory, claim there are books containing content they want to ban that have been allowed to stay.
“That's what the parents have been wanting to know, for a long time. Why is this in our schools?” Ivory said. “And nobody answers the why question. Why is it there?”
Brooke Stevens is a parent who attended this meeting. Stevens started a website for other Utah moms to bring awareness to books and material that could be in their children’s schools. Stevens spoke to Chairman John D. Johnson, emphasizing the trauma this kind of content can have on children who have been sexually abused.
“I tried reading these books so I could respond. I only perused a couple before I had to stop. It gave me the same feelings I had when I was sexually abused as a child,” Stevens said, going on to claim, “I have done everything in my power to prevent my own children from having those same feelings and experiences that I endured. And here are schools serving it to them.”
Another parent, Diane Livingston, said she was there to represent a large community of parents concerned about sexually graphic material in Park City School District. Livingston claimed she sat with her superintendent three years ago about this issue, but nothing was done.
“During this process, I discovered a complete resistance in our district to remove books with graphic sexual material and staunch support for teachers’ book choices,” Livingston said.
The meeting concluded with a comment by Chairman Johnson. “It's important that we protect the innocence of children,” Johnson said. “This is really not about burning books.”
